Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) - Public Sector

Databricks is the Data and AI company, building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform. More than 20,000 organizations rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform.

As a Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will work with federal government customers to build and productionize solutions to their data & AI challenges using the Databricks platform. You will own the architecture, lead design decisions, and implement end-to-end systems spanning data engineering, AI, and application development. This is a hands-on, customer-facing role for builders who thrive at the intersection of technology and business impact. FDEs are billable and complete projects according to specification with customer empathy. This role is hybrid and requires travel to customer locations 20-25% of the time.

• Lead impactful customer technical projects by delivering production-grade systems, reference architectures, custom applications, data ingestion, and ML/AI model integration.
• Guide strategic customers in implementing transformational big data projects, including end-to-end design, build, and deployment.
• Empower customers on architecture and design; bootstrap or implement customer projects.
• Own architecture and design decisions, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with customer needs and Databricks best practices.
• Collaborate with technical teams, project managers, and customers to deliver technical components.
• Embed with customer teams, engaging stakeholders from technical ICs to executives.
• Contribute accelerators, frameworks, and best practices that scale impact across accounts.

Minimum: 6+ years experience in data engineering, data platforms & analytics, or software engineering; fluency in Python, Scala, JavaScript/TypeScript, and modern frameworks; working knowledge of two or more cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP) with expertise in at least one; deep experience with distributed computing with Apache Spark and knowledge of Spark runtime internals; familiarity with CI/CD for production deployments; working knowledge of MLOps, ML/AI models, and AI APIs; design and deployment of performant production end-to-end data architectures; experience with technical project delivery, documentation, and white-boarding; experience working with enterprise clients.

Preferred: Expertise in MLOps, ML/AI models, and AI APIs; Databricks Certification.

$182,000—$250,208 USD (all zones).

Total compensation may include annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed on the Databricks benefits page.

Due to federal contract requirements and client site access obligations, U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. government secret clearance are required to access classified information. Candidates with an active Secret or higher clearance are strongly encouraged to apply.